Plans for Fairmount Avenue to become a “superior street”

All but two Navajo Community Planners, Inc. (NCPI) members voted February 25 to send a letter stating they supported the Kensington-Talmadge Planning Group (KTPG) and the City of San Diego applying for a Caltrans grant to study what NCPI chair Anthony Wagner described as making Fairmount Avenue "safer and more maneuverable."

According to the February 13 Kensington-Talmadge Planning Group agenda, modifications to be planned for would include bike paths and pedestrian lanes on Fairmount between Meade Avenue and the Grantville trolley station. Also proposed for planning were roadway improvements at the Interstate 8 interchange, Fairmount and Montezuma interchange, Aldine Drive, and the intersection of Fairmount and El Cajon Boulevard.

KTPG chair David Moty and writer Joan FitzSimons (both of whom spoke at the meeting) learned that most Navajo Community Planners members had not seen the application that proposed expanding the Fairmount median to a minimum of 20 feet in the area between Meade and I-8. This would allow bike and pedestrian access to Camino del Rio South and the trolley station.

FitzSimons told the Navajo Community Planners that elevated flyovers would provide access to Montezuma and Aldine. "I'm trying to knit together all the players to make Fairmount a superior street," she said.

Moty said the application will be placed on the city-council agenda. If Caltrans approves the grant, FitzSimons said funds would be received in 2014 and the Kensington-Talmadge Planning Group would take the lead in the planning process. Moty told NCPI members that his group would "take your ideas and knit them" into the plan.